3 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Have you tried that non-LEGO-brand LEGO tape that you can stick to walls and whatnot to build on any surface?

i bought some of that for my niece/nephew and they absolutely love it. Pisses the heck out of my brother though because they started making "tripwires" in the doorways lol

7 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Have you tried that non-LEGO-brand LEGO tape that you can stick to walls and whatnot to build on any surface?

Yeah, but we didn't stick it to a great surface, and it peeled up after a week. Cool idea, though.

16 hours ago, PanchoX1 said:

y-wings drop bombs in Rogue one. also in Rebels I think.

16 hours ago, Icelom said:

Spoiler from rogue one. Y-wings drop bombs in the movies...

They hadn’t dropped bombs on screen when the Y-Wing expansion or Most Wanted was released.

Of course now in second edition they have the ability to add the device slot in as the lore updates as it did for the Y-Wing, Striker, and others.

41 minutes ago, HolySorcerer said:

They hadn’t dropped bombs on screen when the Y-Wing expansion or Most Wanted was released.

Of course now in second edition they have the ability to add the device slot in as the lore updates as it did for the Y-Wing, Striker, and others.

When the y wing and most wanted dropped they were taking from the EU, where we had seen y wings drop bombs.

3 minutes ago, Dabirdisdaword said:

When the y wing and most wanted dropped they were taking from the EU, where we had seen y wings drop bombs.

They were known to drop bombs long before the EU. Way back in the 70's, the Kenner die cast y-wing toy came with a droppable bomb.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

• [A] No more books or comic books for kids?

I have not stated this and this line of argumentation is a strawman. Books and comic books do not have flashing lights that shine into the child's eyes like a tablet or tv screen.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

• [ B ] No more movies for kids?

Another strawman. I never made this claim.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

• [C] Kids no longer should learn boring stuff like math or spelling, but only things they like?

Another strawnman. I never made this claim. I highly suggest that you research the Montessori method of learning before forming an opinion on the internet and sharing it with others. My children are currently in Montessori primary school and most certainly learn mathematics and spelling. Not only that, my children do not find those subject 'boring' because of the learning environment!

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

It all truly sounds like a bunch of "parental flavor of the decade".

The Montessori method of learning was created by Maria Montessori over 100 years ago.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

To learn something it's not enough if you just read or hear it once. Some concepts need to be explored with some time at your own pace. And memory comes from repetition and practice. That is why kids have homework. To go thru all they were taught that day, practice it, so that they can finally learn it.

The Montessori method of learning allows children to LEARN AT THEIR OWN PACE and its one of the main pillars of this learning philosophy. All children are different and all children learn at a different pace. Conventional schools funnel all children to learn the same material at the same time and give them deadlines. The reason for homework is that children are not given enough time to learn during the school hours. Teachers are too busy pushing information AT the child for the child to actually learn during the school hours.

In Montessori, a child is free to explore for as long as they need to study the subject they are interested in. So one day, a child might only focus on learning mathematics. Another day they might explore spelling. Yet another day they may do both or something different.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

And homework is mandatory because otherwise god knows that I would have skipped all that math and grammar crap back in the school, and instead go play videogames. But it happens that we need math and grammar to develop properly as pieces of the machinery in modern world, we like it or not, so it needs to be forced. At that age we don't know better.
Telling kids to do homework is like telling kids to eat their vegetables. They need it, even when they don't like it.

In a conventional school, homework is mandatory because children are not given the time to properly learn (as I have described above). The Montessori method of learning has over 100 years of proof that homework is unnecessary. My children are not allowed to play video games. What do my children do after school? They take piano lessons, tennis lessons, and kung fu (thats 3 days right there). I started taking them to x-wing game night on Thursdays. On their free time, they read books, draw, play lego, play board games (x-wing, star realms, etc), actually play outside (kick the ball, play on the tramp, play tag, etc). We wouldn't have time for homework as there are so many other interesting things that CHILDREN should be doing.

20 hours ago, Azrapse said:

In conventional schools, other students aren't competition... or your school is seriously messed up! What are you competing for? Your teacher's love? Grades? What keeps a teacher from givings A+s to all pupils if they happen to all be awesome students? I don't know the USA's education system, but never in my life I ever felt like my schoolmates were competitors!

The entire point of conventional schools is to grade well. So that you can get into the honour programs or good schools. So that you can get into a good university. SO that you can get a good job. Please have a look at the competitiveness of Chinese schools. Also, children KNOW that grading is a competition even if they do not communicate. Children feel bad if other students grade higher then them. And they feel good if they score higher then other children in their class. This sort of feeling is inherent in the grading system and doesn't need to be 'taught'.

On a related note:

I believe there's a mini ATST on the front of the lego star wars magazine this month. It makes the whole thing not bad, pricewise.

17 hours ago, StriderZessei said:

Sadly, I have to agree with all the distraught parents on this one. I've been getting into the Star Wars rpg and bought the dice-rolling app, since there times I might need more dice than are included in the starter set (which is a shameless money-grabbing rip-off anyway! Where was the notice on the book, FFG!)

....Whistles innocently and trys to shove the boxes for all four starter sets behind the cupboard.

Whilst I have some issues with the Montessori method - it does depend very highly on the physical and human resources made available to the child, which is part of an issue leading to the 'mass production education' it's usually used as an example to rail against (no, we can't do small-group open debate discussions because there's forty-five of you, five workshop stations, three computers and only one of me*) - that's more one of 'it's an aspiration, we might not be able to afford to do it properly' - it does have a lot to recommend it because it's focusing on building the correct character of a student. It's not a fad (the label, maybe, but the concept isn't).

Ultimately, the most important thing you can instil in a child is (a) a desire to learn and (b) an understanding of how to learn.

Monitoring and controlling access to the web is one thing but it's something that does need to be introduced, and fairly early, because it's a fundamental element of the world today - and part of the fact that 'stuff' is not hard to find - a detailed step by step recipe for plum pudding? The history of Fiji? None of these take more than a couple of minutes to find on google, youtube or Wikipedia.

Facts - pretty much the sum scientific and cultural knowledge of the human race - are instantly available. Wanting to actually engage with it or knowing what to do with it and how to understand it....that's more difficult. Which is, sadly, why the good bits of the internet seem constantly buried in pictures of ladies' cleavage and cat memes.

How, when, and in what amount, though, is more difficult to define. It's the same view as the physical 'prepared environment', I guess - setting up a tablet or PC to access specific parts of the web and only those, and controlling not what's done with it but the time spent on it.

That said, I will always recommend the tactile and physical. I've never really gotten into Ebooks and part of me hopes my children don't.

Wow. That's a really wordy post which has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of the thread. My apologies. We now return you to your regularly scheduled plastic spaceship dogfighting game.

* Okay, I know that's more 'later year' stuff. Replace with quantities of blocks, or paints, or child-friendly workshop toys, or plants, as appropriate to age and subject.

1 hour ago, Lace Jetstreamer said:

I have not stated this and this line of argumentation is a strawman. Books and comic books do not have flashing lights that shine into the child's eyes like a tablet or tv screen.

Activities as healthy as going out and play sports, swimming, etc also incur on something shining all the time into your child's eyes, and with much more intensity than a tablet or tv screen. It is a myth that screens damage people's sight, if you are fearing that.

My other two "strawmen" aren't so. You complained that electronics, or something, offered information in a sequential flow. But that is exactly the same as movies do. Or even bedtime stories. Kids have survived centuries of paying attention to sequential flows of information while keeping their focus.
It is as if trying to teach them to keep focus and interest on a subject were bad all of sudden, and we should encourage hyperactivity and jumping from one thing to the next whenever they so please.

1 hour ago, Lace Jetstreamer said:

Conventional schools funnel all children to learn the same material at the same time and give them deadlines. The reason for homework is that children are not given enough time to learn during the school hours. Teachers are too busy pushing information AT the child for the child to actually learn during the school hours.

In Montessori, a child is free to explore for as long as they need to study the subject they are interested in. So one day, a child might only focus on learning mathematics. Another day they might explore spelling. Yet another day they may do both or something different.

There is a reason for deadlines. It is that there is a lot to learn in a given amount of time. Of course it would be awesome if we could spend as much time as needed on each subject. If you are okay with your kids finishing highschool when they are 25 instead of in their teens, go for it.

Before going any further, I need to ask here if we are talking about kids with "special needs" or just regular kids?

1 hour ago, Lace Jetstreamer said:

My children are not allowed to play video games.

Why?
Do they have some special medical condition, like epilepsy or sight problems?
Or is it just some kind of fanatism from their parents? Are videogames The Devil?

1 hour ago, Lace Jetstreamer said:

The entire point of conventional schools is to grade well.

The entire point of school, in general, is to prepare you for life. Real life.
In real life you will not be allowed to flutter between whatever you feel for most at any given moment, at your own pace, no deadlines, take your time, good boy.

In real life your kids will get a job that will perhaps involve stressful deadlines, having to learn something in record time, dealing with computers and software, keeping a contact network in, at the very least, the professionally oriented social sites like LinkedIn, being assigned a task for which they won't be handheld and having to find documentation for it in the Internet, and, yes, compete with other people for basically a great many things, like jobs, salary, and worker right, or at the very least, to keep mental stability when dealing with the nasty people that populate our world (and are on the rise, lately).

Training them in an environment where there is no pressure, confrontation, hurries, and obligations (not to mention forbidding them to deal with electronics!) is like training them for an unreal world, that will cause them all kind of frustration and anguish once they are released of your grip, and get punched in the face by reality. Probably blaming you in the end.

I hope I'm all wrong here, though. Good luck.

I will play devil's advocate and throw out the fact that blue light emmited by electronic screens is different from normal sunlight, and can be detrimental to the development of young eyes.

1 hour ago, StriderZessei said:

I will play devil's advocate and throw out the fact that blue light emmited by electronic screens is different from normal sunlight, and can be detrimental to the development of young eyes.

of all eyes. hence why there is an option for reflective blue coating in recent optical prescriptions. going to be hard to go through life without having a screen in front of you in the modern techcentric world.

2 hours ago, Wiredin said:

of all eyes. hence why there is an option for reflective blue coating in recent optical prescriptions. going to be hard to go through life without having a screen in front of you in the modern techcentric world.

I wear Gunner computer glasses when I am on the computer (which is most of the day as my job requires a computer). When I go outside, I wear sunglasses.

On 7/11/2018 at 5:36 PM, Lace Jetstreamer said:

I wear Gunner computer glasses when I am on the computer (which is most of the day as my job requires a computer). When I go outside, I wear sunglasses.

Me too! I've really noticed I have less eye fatigue and fewer headaches after a major gaming session when I wear my Gunners.